There are a huge number of online resources about the most effective way to design a website.

Research by Jacob Neilsen and Steve Krug into usability has undoubtedly influenced many of today’s web designers. A recent post by Smashing Magazine entitled “10 Principles Of Effective Web Design” suggests that the “usability and the utility, not the visual design, determine the success or failure of a website”.

Usability principles are important but our experience would suggest that a website’s credibility is arguably more influential. The Web Credibility Project at Stanford University has published some useful information about how to boost a website’s credibility, all of which we would agree with.

Our experience though suggests that there is one thing above all others that is all important in ensuring a websites success…

Brian Cugelman of Alter Spark presents a well supported argument that talented designers can influence how much faith users may place in a given website. He goes on to say that “Web design can impact the success of your online enterprise. It can boost users’ likelihood of believing content; it can influence their probability of trusting the organization operating a website; it can create a strong and lasting first impression. Likewise, poor design can evoke mistrust, disbelief, and disregard.”

Our experience would support this. Back in 2003 we were commissioned to design a website for a luxury travel company called Bales Worldwide. The new website design delivered a huge increase in sales. The main change in user behaviour was that visitors were spending more time on the website with a greater percentage converting through to sale. We would suggest that this is because the visual experience delivered by the new website design meant they felt like they were in the right place the result of which more users purchased luxury holiday’s at £3000 per person. You can view the case study on our website.

Don’t just take our word for it - have a read of some of the positive comments made about our website design for Bales Worldwide on the Travel Rants blog.

Leading brands spend significant budgets on design because they understand its value. In an increasingly competitive world there is a way that companies with little brand exposure can level the playing field and generate more revenue by getting it right online. The difficulty is often for a prospective client to make the leap and provide the investment required to originate a visually compelling website design.

If you have a great product but your website is not delivering the sales results you would expect, talk to us, we can help. If we feel there is a fit with you we’d be happy to discuss working on a part fee / part commission basis as our way of demonstrating our belief that great web design can help companies succeed and generate results online.

Contact us at success@designbystructure.com